Like Clockwork, Sox Rally, Cubs Falter

Giants Beat Smith With 2 Runs In 9th

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants reset the calendar to 1925 Sunday afternoon. The Cubs would settle for June 14.

What`s so special about June 14 in Cubs history? That was the last time the North Siders defeated another team in a game of baseball. You can look it up.

Since that glorious evening in San Diego, the Cubs have lost nine straight games. And they`ve lost them in almost every way imaginable, and some unimaginable.

Sunday`s 2-1 weeper in Candlestick Park fit the latter description. Imagine rookie Bob Scanlan, who has had his troubles recently, shutting out the Giants on two hits for 7 2/3 innings.

Now imagine Dave Smith, successful in 12 of his last 13 save opportunities, giving away the lead and the game in the ninth inning.

Unimaginable? That`s what the Cubs would have said if you`d have told them on June 14 that they would be winless through the next nine days.

``I`ve never been on a team that`s lost this many in a row,`` Smith said as his teammates packed for Pittsburgh in stony silence.

``It`s been a devastating streak,`` manager Jim Essian said. ``We came out here trying to cut the deficit on Pittsburgh. But we went the other way.`` Now they go all the way to Pittsburgh for a three-game date with the National League East-leading Pirates. A three-game winning streak might restore the Cubs` flagging hopes.

As has been the case in many of the crushers they`ve endured, the Cubs had every reason to believe that this game would be the streak-buster. They jumped ahead 1-0 in the second when George Bell belted his 14th homer, a long drive into the left-field bleachers off John Burkett.

But after that the Cubs robbed themselves of chance after chance. The worst example of waste came in the third. Three consecutive singles produced nothing because Cedric Landrum was caught stealing for the first time this year and because Dwight Smith, subbing for the sore-shouldered Andre Dawson, banged into a double play.

The Cubs hit into a dozen double plays in the four-game sweep, including rally-enders in the third, fourth and fifth innings Sunday. And they had six men thrown out trying to steal.

The Cubs` bungling on the basepaths has killed them several times during the streak, but it seemed as if fate would spare them this time because Scanlan kept throwing white goose eggs up on the green hand-operated scoreboard set up in honor of the Giants` ``Turn Back the Clock Day.``

He no-hit them until Will Clark blooped a one-out single in the fourth. After that Scanlan allowed only a walk and a double until the eighth. Essian came with the hook after Ryne Sandberg dropped a liner for an error and the runner advanced to second with two down.

Smith walked the first man he faced, then retired Mike Kingery to escape that jam.

The ninth was another story. The Cubs` grotesque luck demanded that the leadoff man be none other than Willie McGee, second in the league with a .328 batting average. He looped a single to right.

Next up, of course, was Clark. Smith fired a pitch low and away, a favorite place to pitch the league`s No. 2 RBI man. But Clark reached down and poled a drive, just fair, into the right-field corner. By the time Landrum caught up with it, Clark was pumping his fist on third base and 42,389 in Candlestick were roaring the way they did when Clark sent that playoff-clinching liner buzzing past Mitch Williams` ear in 1989.

A pair of intentional walks loaded the bases for Robby Thompson, who hit a one-hopper to Shawon Dunston`s left. Dunston made the cross-body throw to the plate just in time to nip Clark.

But the game ended a moment later when Mike Felder dumped a perfect suicide squeeze bunt between the mound and the first-base line. Smith had his fourth defeat and his fifth blown save in 21 tries.

Essian had a ready explanation for those wondering why he yanked Scanlan.

``With the top of the order coming, it`s time for Smith to do his thing,`` Essian said. ``This is his time. Perhaps a (Greg) Maddux you leave in there. Rather than leave Bob Scanlan in there, you`ve got a guy in the bullpen you can depend on.``

Scanlan, crushed after stretching his personal winless streak to six games, had little to say about Essian`s decision. ``He knows what he`s doing,`` Scanlan said. ``Ninety-nine times out of 100, Dave Smith gets that save.``